Vivo pulls out as IPL title sponsor

Chinese smartphone company Vivo has pulled out as the Indian Premier League's (IPL) title sponsor. The decision was made at the IPL Governing Council meeting on January 11 (Tuesday).

Vivo acquired the rights for INR 440 crores in 2018. However, they were pushed out of the deal in 2020 in the wake of the political tension between India and China. The rights were transferred to Dream11 before Vivo returned as title sponsor in 2021.

Vivo had made an official request to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to terminate the deal, which was approved on Tuesday. Speaking to Cricbuzz, an official who was part of the meeting, said:

"There was a request from Vivo to exit the IPL sponsorship deal and the GC has approved it."

The sponsorship agreement was previously scheduled to end in 2023 but BCCI and Vivo parted ways mutually.

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Tata takes over as IPL's title sponsor

Vivo has transferred the title sponsor rights to Tata, one of the biggest corporates in India. The Tata Group will remain as IPL's main sponsor for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

The most prominent franchise league across the globe will now be called Tata IPL. The BCCI will continue to earn the same amount of money they used to from Vivo.

"Vivo has exited and the Tatas will be title sponsors," chairman of the league Brijesh Patel confirmed.

The governing council has also approved the Letter of Intent to be issued to CVC Capital, who acquired the Ahmedabad franchise.

"The GC has approved the CVC acquisition of the Ahmedabad team and we will issue the LoI today (January 11)," Patel further added.

CVC Capital, former owners of Formula One, came up with the second-highest bid of INR 5625 crore and acquired the Ahmedabad franchise. The RPSG Group, owned by Sanjiv Goenka, came up with a winning bid of a staggering INR 7090 crore to pick up the Lucknow franchise.